The hundred dollar bill
by evincis
Summary: When 12 year old Benjamin Vaughn asked why there was a hundred dollar bill framed in the study at home, he just couldn't get a straight answer. Follow a conversation between Gabriel and Riley after the events of "The Greay Hat" the consequences of which neither of them foresaw. Riliel of course


_AN/ For all of you suffering from Intelligence (and Raliel) withdrawal, here is a story that I've been working on for a while. It's an idea that popped into my head after watching "The Grey Hat" for the third time._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Intelligence. This story is for entertainment purposes only and has no lucrative purpose. Do not publish without my explicit consent. _

**The hundred dollar bill**

Once they left Tory and his brother in the lab, Riley and Gabriel headed back to his place for their usual after mission beer.

"Here you go." Gabriel handed Riley a bottle.

"Thanks." She smiled as she opened her beer bottle. "By the way, you were pretty good with Troy today."

"Yeah?" Gabriel asked with a shy smile. He rarely showed that vulnerable side. Riley nodded.

"You scolded him when his messed up. You gave him a treat when he deserved it."

"Thanks." He smiled back at her.

"Just saying. You'd make a pretty good dad." She said and took a sip of her beer.

"You think so?" He gave her another shy smile. Score.

"You were tough but fair." She confirmed.

"You were pretty good too, you know?" Gabriel looked at his partner. "I'm serious. You saw something that none of us did. You saw his gift."

"His gift for trouble." She said and they both smiled. "I just stated the obvious. You were the one who told him that he had a duty to help." They had been a pretty good parenting team on this one.

"It may have been obvious to you. But not to everyone else." Gabriel went to the couch and sat down.

"What are you talking about? Nelson was worshiping him. I'm wondering how he hasn't built him a statue yet." Riley took a seat right next to him.

"I'm not talking about that. Nelson saw his skills. You saw what he could do with them." He looked at her and smiled. "You see the good in people. It's just something that you do. You help them see who they really are and hold on to what is good in them. You do it with me all the time. You remind me of my humanity every day. Just like you saw Troy's gift. Not everyone can do that. Now that I think about it, you would make a good parent."

"Are you sure that this is your first beer?" She preferred to laugh it off.

"Hey, I'm serious here." Gabriel faked being offended.. "What? You don't want a family of your own?"

"I've got you." Once the words left her mouth, she realized what she had said and how it could be interpreted. She felt the blood rush to her cheeks and she was glad that her hair was down and the room wasn't very well lit. "I mean… you're a full time job."

"I don't mind sharing you with a couple of kids." Interestingly enough, Gabriel didn't think of these hypothetical kids' father.

"Why do people think that because I'm a woman, I want to get married and have a bunch of babies?" She said annoyed.

"I never said that." And he meant it. He was wondering whether Riley wanted children not because she was a woman but because of the person that she was.

"I don't really think that I'm mom material." She took another sip from her beer.

"You'd be no soccer mom, I'll give you that." Gabriel commented.

"Am I blushing?" Well, she was but for a different reason.

"Hey, it's not a bad thing. So what if you don't drive your kids to soccer or ballet practice. I can do that for you." It was Gabriel's turn to realize that he had said something awkward. But it was so easy for him to imagine playing chase with an 8 year old girl with Riley's beautiful green eyes.

"And why would I let you anywhere near my imaginary kids?" Riley looked at her feet hoping that Gabriel wouldn't notice her reddening cheeks. Truth be told, she found herself liking the picture that he had just put in her head of himself driving a minivan with two kids on the back singing country songs.

"Because I have a killer smile?" And to demonstrate he gave her a typical 100 watt Gabriel Vaughn grinn that showed all of his perfectly alligned teeth. "You would be one of those cool kick ass moms making her kid feel super safe." Like he himself did. "Or who would intimidate any potential date."

"Wow. Quite a fantasy you've got there." Riley teased him.

"It doesn't have to be." His expression suddenly became serious. Riley nodded but didn't say anything. "Look, you're focusing on your part in this." He continued. "You think of yourself as a single mom. The truth is you'll never be doing this alone." The way he said it made her want to cry. "Cassidy would make one hell of a babysitter. And you wouldn't have any problem with college applications because Nelson will start preparing that from the moment they speak. We'll find something for Jameson to do. And like I said I'll drive them to soccer practice. Or ballet lessons as long as you don't make me wear tights." That last image caused Riley to burst into laughter.

"Why is it so important to you that I want to have kids?"

"It's not." He sat up and looked her in the eyes. "It's just… It's one thing to let go of a dream because you've moved on from it. An entirely different thing to have never had any dream for the future." If he had to be honest, Gabriel couldn't imagine Riley dying in the middle of nowhere during an op. No, Riley Neal could definitely make Agency Director one day, and even Director of National Intelligence if she played her cards right and didn't listen to him much. And that meant that she had a shot at a somewhat normal life. A full life that wouldn't revolve around protecting a hybrid between man and computer. A happy life revolving around the people that she loved. But only if she allowed such happiness in her life. "That's just…"

"Sad?" She finished for him. "I actually never really thought about it."

"You were too busy protecting other people." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yeah." She confirmed. "That's not a child-prone environment." Riley focused on her beer and without realising it started pealing the etiquette. Suddenly Gabriel was hit by a realization.

"Riley, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have…" He tried to apologize. He felt like a complete ass: it's not that she didn't have that dream - she was afraid to allow herself to have it. "I didn't think about that..."

"It's ok. And actually, I have no idea whether..." She left it unsaid because after all the images that Gabriel hat put in her head, she was afraid of tearing up. She had never thought about this. She had never thought about her own future so she didn't even know whether she wanted this. And a part of her cursed Gabriel for making it so appealing. As if he could read her mind, he took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"I'm sorry I went there. It's true that with what we do, we're not really the type of people who get the suburban house with the white picket fence."

"_You_ gave a shot at a marriage." She wondered for a second if he and Amelia had ever planned on having children. Gabriel was a family man, so it wouldn't have been surprising.

"And look how it turned out."

"It wasn't your fault, Gabriel." This time Rile squeezed his hand. "You have to stop blaming yourself."

"I know." He took a deep breath. He had to let go of the past and look forward to the future. And if he wanted to convince Riley to so, he had to give that opportunity to himself as well. So then and there he made a decision. Not so much for himself as for her. "And that's why I'm not giving up."

"On marriage?"

"On having a normal family. Well, as normal as people like you and I can have. And neither should you."

"You're not letting this go, are you?" Riley let go of his embrace and suddenly felt so cold and alone.

"I just think that it would be a waste of your capacity to see what's special in people." Gabriel gave her a big smile. "And you _will_ change your mind."

"And how do you know that?" Obviously Riley didn't even allow herself to dream. "Oh, let me guess, your inner voice."

"Maybe." Gabriel then reached into his pocket and took out some cash. "Tell you what… Here's… fifty bucks… Double or nothing says that one day, maybe not tomorrow or in a year, but one day you will admit to me that you are the single happiest person alive because you're a mom." How could he see that she was cracking? How could he have unsilenced that biological clock that she never even knew she had?

"You really want to give me fifty bucks?" She teased him back.

"I think of it as an investment. I'm giving you fifty now, but I'm sure to get a hundred back." He handed her the fifty dollar bill. She looked him in the eyes and realized that he was serious.

"Fine. You're on. But keep dreaming." Riley didn't believe him but took the money to humour him. Little did she know that she'd be paying him back sooner than any of them would have expected.

Years later, when 12 year old Benjamin Vaughn asked why there was a hundred dollar bill framed in the study at home, he just couldn't get a straight answer. His father would just grin and tell him that it was proof of his persuasion skills. His mother would smile and tell him that it was the best 100 dollars she ever lost. Aunt Lillian would just look at him with a smile and stroke his head. Uncle Nelson would tell him to focus on more important things like his application to MIT (even though he was only 12). Uncle Chris would say that it was the best thing that happened to his parents. Grandma Mary would tell him that it was a long time coming, whatever that meant and Grandpa Shan would tell him that it showed how anything was possible when two people loved each other as much as his parents did. He finally came to the conclusion that grownups were weird and that he would never understand why he couldn't use it for new baseball equipment.

_AN/ Here it is. I hope that you liked it. It was hard to write Riley's point of view on this one. I don't think that she's one of those "I want to get married and have cute babies or else my existence is sad" but I also think that she never really thought about it because she was too busy thinking about other people. _

_In any case, let me know what you think. It would mean the world to me._


End file.
